diff --git a/Lib/test/test_zoneinfo/test_zoneinfo.py b/Lib/test/test_zoneinfo/test_zoneinfo.py
index 1e71b72dc87685..81fce3f4155afe 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_zoneinfo/test_zoneinfo.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_zoneinfo/test_zoneinfo.py
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 import struct
 import tempfile
 import unittest
+import sys
 from datetime import date, datetime, time, timedelta, timezone
 from functools import cached_property
 
@@ -2253,6 +2254,43 @@ def _Pacific_Kiritimati():
     _ZONEDUMP_DATA = None
     _FIXED_OFFSET_ZONES = None
 
+class CZoneInfoSanityTest(CZoneInfoTest):
+    """gh-125318: custom non-PyDateTime types could cause out-of-bounds read"""
+
+    class CustomDateTime:
+        def __init__(self, year, month, day, hour=0, minute=0, second=0):
+            self.ordinal = date(year, month, day).toordinal()
+            self.hour = hour
+            self.minute = minute
+            self.second = second
+
+        def toordinal(self):
+            return self.ordinal
+
+    def _spray(self, depth):
+        if depth == 0:
+            return None
+        self._spray(depth - 1)
+
+    def test_find_ttinfo_sanity(self):
+        RECURSION_LIMIT = 1000000
+        SPRAY_TIMES = 10000
+        CHECK_TIMES = 10000
+
+        # spray some garbage on the stack
+        saved_limit = sys.getrecursionlimit()
+        sys.setrecursionlimit(RECURSION_LIMIT)
+        self._spray(SPRAY_TIMES)
+        sys.setrecursionlimit(saved_limit)
+
+        for _ in range(CHECK_TIMES):
+            zi = self.klass("UTC")
+            dt = self.CustomDateTime(2024, 10, 22, 10, 24, 20)
+            try:
+                zi.utcoffset(dt)
+            except MemoryError:
+                continue
+
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     unittest.main()
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2024-10-22-10-27-33.gh-issue-125824._oesZh.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2024-10-22-10-27-33.gh-issue-125824._oesZh.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..546a2b5e2c9fb2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2024-10-22-10-27-33.gh-issue-125824._oesZh.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Add sanity check in :mod:`zoneinfo` to mitigate out-of-bounds read.
diff --git a/Modules/_zoneinfo.c b/Modules/_zoneinfo.c
index 47e40125cf8091..f6c669b2fcec3d 100644
--- a/Modules/_zoneinfo.c
+++ b/Modules/_zoneinfo.c
@@ -2205,7 +2205,15 @@ find_ttinfo(zoneinfo_state *state, PyZoneInfo_ZoneInfo *self, PyObject *dt)
     }
 
     unsigned char fold = PyDateTime_DATE_GET_FOLD(dt);
-    assert(fold < 2);
+
+    // gh-125318: out-of-bounds sanity check on non-PyDateTime types
+    if (fold >= 2) {
+        PyErr_Format(PyExc_MemoryError,
+                     "find_ttinfo: sanity check failed, fold = %d, expected "
+                     "only 0 or 1", fold);
+        return NULL;
+    }
+
     int64_t *local_transitions = self->trans_list_wall[fold];
     size_t num_trans = self->num_transitions;